Microsoft researcher wins Turing Award, computing’s highest prize

Sure, Chuck Thacker now works at Microsoft Research in Silicon Valley. But the computer scientist is best known – and on Tuesday won the field’s highest prize – for his decades of influential work in computing.

Thacker

“When people say, ‘What have you done for Microsoft lately?'” Thacker said in a Microsoft feature, “I say: ‘You don’t understand. The most impact I’ve had on Microsoft was work that was done before Microsoft even existed, when Bill was in short pants.'”

Bill Gates in short pants would be a sight to see. Then again, if you asked Thacker back then whether he’d be accepting the A.M. Turing Award – largely considered the “Nobel Prize of computing” – decades later, he would have laughed.

“I was extremely surprised,” Thacker said. “I never expected to win this one. There are several other nice awards that I’ve won that I thought were within the realm of possibility, but this one I never even thought was possible.”

Thacker is best known for his work developing the Alto personal computer while at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. He also had a hand in developing the graphical user interface, inventing Ethernet and designing tablet PCs.

In 1997 he joined Microsoft Research’s labs in Cambridge, England, then and moved back to Silicon Valley two years later, continuing with the software superpower. Thacker is the fourth Microsoftie to win the Turing award – he joins Butler Lampson, Tony Hoare and Jim Gray.

Thacker, 67, wins $250,000 along with the pride of being awarded the Turing Award. Check out this full feature from Microsoft about Thacker.